In a compelling and powerfully argued book, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and his longtime chief of staff tell the insiders’ story of how the Senate used to work and how the filibuster came to cripple the self-styled “world’s greatest deliberative body” with paralyzing gridlock. And they make the surprising case that restoring a modified version of the old-style, talking filibuster may just be our democracy’s path back from the brink.
Filibustered! How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America combines a marvelous romp through key moments in filibuster history—from the first filibuster in 1841, through southern “Dixiecrat” filibusters of civil rights legislation, up through Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) transformation of the filibuster into a routine tool of perennial gridlock—with firsthand accounts of recent high-profile legislative fights and a compelling argument that the key to the Senate’s future may be found in its past.
Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion of the filibuster with Sen. Jeff Merkley and Mike Zamore, co-authors of Filibustered! How to Fix the Broken Senate and Save America. Copies of the book will be for sale at the event, and the authors will be available to sign afterward. Reception to follow.